Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Rats and vermin round my feet

There are rocks out there in that wide, wide Play unharmed, companions sweet,

[blocks in formation]

Spiders weave me overhead
Silken curtains for my bed.

Day by day the mould I smell
Of this fungus-blistered cell;

Nightly in my haunted sleep
O'er my face the lizards creep.

Gyves of iron scrape and burn
Wrists and ankles when I turn,
And my collared neck is raw
With the teeth of brass that gnaw.

God of Israel, canst Thou see
All my fierce captivity?
Do thy sinews feel my pains?
Hearest Thou the clanking chains?

Thou who madest me so fair,
Strong and buoyant as the air,
Tall and noble as a tree,
With the passions of the sea,

Swift as horse upon my feet,
Fierce as lion in my heat,
Rending, like a wisp of hay,
All that dared withstand my way,

Canst Thou see me through the gloom
Of this subterranean tomb,
Blinded tiger in his den,

Once the lord and prince of men?

[blocks in formation]

Cared I no more for Thy laws Than a wind of scattered straws.

When the earth quaked at my name
And my blood was all aflame,
Who was I to lie, and cheat
Her who clung about my feet?

From Thy open nostrils blow
Wind and tempest, rain and snow;
Dost Thou curse them on their course,
For the fury of their force?

Tortured am I, wracked and bowed,
But the soul within is proud;
Dungeon fetters cannot still
Forces of the tameless will.

Israel's God, come down and see
All my fierce captivity;
Let Thy sinews feel my pains,
With Thy fingers lift my chains.

Then, with thunder loud and wild,
Comfort Thou Thy rebel child,
And with lightning split in twain
Loveless heart and sightless brain.

Give me splendor in my deathNot this sickening dungeon breath, Creeping down my blood like slime, Till it wastes me in my prime.

Give me back, for one blind hour,
Half my former rage and power,
And some giant crisis send
Meet to prove a hero's end.

Then, O God, Thy mercy show
Crush him in the overthrow

At whose life they scorn and point,
By its greatness out of joint.

VAN ELSEN

GOD spake three times and saved Van Elsen's soul;

He spake by sickness first and made him

whole;

Van Elsen heard him not,

Or soon forgot.

God spake to him by wealth, the world out

poured

[blocks in formation]

HEAT

Archibald Lampman

FROM plains that reel to southward, dim, The road runs by me white and bare; Up the steep hill it seems to swim

Beyond, and melt into the glare.
Upward half way, or it may be

Nearer the summit, slowly steals
A hay-cart, moving dustily
With idly clacking wheels.

By his cart's side the wagoner
Is slouching slowly at his ease,
Half-hidden in the windless blur

Of white dust puffing to his knees.
This wagon on the height above,

From sky to sky on either hand, Is the sole thing that seems to move In all the heat-held land.

Beyond me in the fields the sun

Soaks in the grass and hath his will; I count the marguerites one by one; Even the buttercups are still. On the brook yonder not a breath

Disturbs the spider or the midge. The water-bugs draw close beneath

The cool gloom of the bridge.

Where the far elm-tree shadows flood
Dark patches in the burning grass,
The cows, each with her peaceful cud,
Lie waiting for the heat to pass.
From somewhere on the slope near by
Into the pale depth of the noon
A wandering thrush slides leisurely
His thin revolving tune.

In intervals of dreams I hear

The cricket from the droughty ground;
The grasshoppers spin into mine ear
A small innumerable sound.

I lift mine eyes sometimes to gaze :
The burning sky-line blinds my sight;
The woods far off are blue with haze;
The hills are drenched in light.

And yet to me not this or that

Is always sharp or always sweet; In the sloped shadow of my hat

I lean at rest, and drain the heat;

[blocks in formation]
« AnkstesnisTęsti »